This was when the Olympics still mattered more than anything else in sports, even during the heart of a summer when the Yankees were pushing their way toward their first postseason appearance in 12 years.
This was the summer of 1976, and every night there was only one place to be in primetime: In front of your television, watching the Games of the XXI Olympiad live from Montreal. Bruce Jenner was the big American star in those Olympics, becoming the 10th U.S. man to win the decathlon and landing on Wheaties boxes for the next 20 years. John Nabers, a swimmer, won four golds. Dean Smith and Adrian Dantley restored U.S. basketball to prominence after the crimes of 1972, winning gold.
But the biggest star was an athlete who stood only 5-foot-3. That was Nadia Comaneci of Romania, and she was all of 14 years old, and 50 years ago this month she not only achieved but made routine something athletes have been seeking since the beginning of time.
Perfection.
